FEB. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek tech developers, possibly under orders from the authorities, unveiled their version of twitter called bamboo.uz. Opponents of the government have described bamboo, which lets users post messages of up to 700 characters, as another attempt to control social media.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)
FEB. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek president Islam Karimov wants to build Uzmobile, a subsidiary of Uztelecom, into a new national mobile phone operator. Uzbekistan has been trying, and failing, to sell kit left by Russia’s MTS when it quit Uzbekistan in 2012 after a row with the authorities over tax.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)
JAN. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — KCell, Kazakhstan’s largest mobile telecoms provider, posted full year net profit for 2013 up 2.5% to $408m mainly driven by increased demand for 3G data services. The company, majority owned by Sweden’s TeliaSonera, said mobile penetration measured 180% by the end of 2013. This high penetration rate is an indicator of development.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
FEB. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will launch its second telecoms satellite in 2017, media reported quoting the state-owned Azercosmos. Azerbaijan launched its first telecoms satellite from French Guyana in February 2013. It is used by companies across the South Caucasus and Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — MTS, the Russian telecoms firm, is reportedly negotiating with Uzbekistan on ways to re-enter the country.
In an interview with Russian media Vladimir Yevtushenko, chairman of Sistema which owns MTS, said that he was already negotiating the company’s return to Uzbekistan.
“Yes, I participate, but there are no predictions,” Mr Yevtushenko said in response to a question by a reporter from the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti on whether he was personally involved in negotiations over MTS potential return to Uzbekistan.
“Being out, well, not working (in Uzbekistan), is also good. Today, for us it is all history. Of course, a return would be good for MTS and for Uzbekistan but, as they say, the devil always lies in the details.”
MTS says that it was chased out of Uzbekistan, where it did have about half the mobile phone subscriber market, in 2012 after a series of tax cases were launched against it. Since then the Uzbek authorities have confiscated MTS equipment in Uzbekistan and unsuccessfully tried to auction it off.
But as well as negotiating with the Uzbek authorities, reports said that MTS has also started proceedings against Uzbekistan at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
For investors, the MTS dispute has become an important yardstick for measuring the problems of doing business in Uzbekistan.
This makes MTS’s carrot and stick approach, both negotiating and prosecuting through the courts, important to watch.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian telecoms firm MTS is negotiating with Uzbekistan on possibly re-entering the country after quitting in 2012 over tax disputes, the chairman of its parent company Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenko, told Russian media. At the same time reports say that MTS is challenging Uzbekistan in the international courts for its assets.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Another Chinese company opened up a factory in Uzbekistan. Under a joint venture with Uzbek partners, Puyang Sanshun Commerce Co. ltd will produce mobile phones and tablets in the Navoi Economic Free Zone, media reported. The Navoi Free Economic Zone has attracted a clutch of companies from Korea and China.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera sacked another top executive from its Eurasian division which has been linked to murky deals in both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
The allegations of dubious deals bring into focus the links between the Uzbek and Kazakh elites and Western companies’ desire to tap into markets.
Media reported that Veysel Aral, head of TeliaSonera’s Eurasia unit, was fired after only 10 months in the job.
He took over in February from Tero Kivisaari who had been head of the unit in 2007 when it made a $350m payment to a Gibraltar-registered company linked to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, in return for a 3G licence.
Swedish media released details of that deal a couple of years ago triggering an internal investigation that has led to several high-level resignations and sackings at TeliaSonera.
Before Mr Aral took over from Mr Kivisaari as head of TeliaSonera’s Eurasia unit he had been in charge of KCell, TeliaSonera’s Kazakhstan subsidiary. Earlier this month a Swedish newspaper also raised questions over a $200m deal in 2012 by KCell to buy telecoms infrastructure from companies owned by Karim Massimov, head of Kazakhstan’s presidential administration.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unable to sell equipment that had belonged to Uzdunrobita, the Uzbek subsidiary of Russia’s MTS, media reported that the state’s Uzbektelecom has taken charge of it. MTS closed down Uzdunrobita last year after the authorities started investigating it for tax evasion.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Swedish newspaper accused telecoms company TeliaSonera of making unethical deals in Kazakhstan. TeliaSonera bought telephone networks from two companies with close connections to the head of the Kazakh presidential administration, Karim Massimov, in 2012 for about $200m, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)